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Strategy-based video games, such as those in the Age of Empires™ series produced by Ensemble Studios/Microsoft Corporation, have become increasingly popular in the video game business. Such strategic games typically involve players controlling a group of units that appear on a world (or localized) map, and the games typically involve one player's units battling a group of units belonging to another player (a human opponent, computer-controlled opponent, or any combination of the two). In addition to decisions in combat, such games may involve tactical decisions regarding the creation and/or improvement of units, as well as resource gathering to acquire components needed to create/improve units.
Much of the strategy behind winning such games involves exploring a map to discover the locations of map features (e.g., terrain, resources, etc.), and exploiting that knowledge. Identifying, locating, and protecting map resources becomes every bit as important as effectively controlling units in combat. Accordingly, advance knowledge of a map's details, such as the locations of key resources, can give an advantage to the player with the knowledge. If only one player has prior knowledge of the map, such an unfair advantage takes away from the enjoyment of the game, and for this reason, it is desirable to include a random map feature with such games.
A random map feature may keep the player guessing as to where things are in the world, and may keep the game fresh for the player. However, effectively and quickly generating realistic random maps that will be fair and fun to play is a difficult endeavor.
Another feature of strategy games involves animation. Animating the movement of onscreen images, such as characters, helps provide a more engaging game experience. However, realistically animating characters requires computing resources during the game's execution, and if a large number of characters are to be animated onscreen, the required computing resources may become a bottleneck for the program, and the user may experience lagging and/or stalling.